For those involved in the debate over gun policy in the United States, the past few days have been surprisingly eventful. On Friday afternoon, for example, Wayne LaPierre announced that he’s stepping down as CEO of the National Rifle Association, following a highly controversial tenure spanning more than three decades.
As my colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim noted, LaPierre’s resignation came just days before the start of a potentially damaging corruption trial, which will proceed despite Friday’s announcement. NBC News reported that the organization, in addition to current and former NRA leaders, “are fending off a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2020 that alleges they violated nonprofit laws and misused millions of dollars of NRA funds to finance lavish lifestyles for themselves.”
A few hours after LaPierre’s announcement, Donald Trump campaigned in Iowa, a state where many are still dealing with a school shooting that left a sixth grader dead and seven others injured. The former president acknowledged the tragedy and offered some Trump-like words of advice.
“We’re really with you as much as anybody can be. It’s a very terrible thing that happened,” the Republican told supporters in Sioux City. “And it’s just horrible to see that happening, it’s just horrible. So surprising to see it here. But, uh, have to get over it. We have to move forward, we have to move forward.”
It’s not exactly a secret that Trump has struggled for years with the very idea of empathy. I remember shortly after a deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, the Associated Press reported that White House aides felt anxiety over what the then-president might say (or tweet) about the mass murders. They were nervous, of course, because of his “troubled track record in such delicate moments.”
The report added at the time, “Trump often has had difficulty embracing a central role of the American presidency: consoling people dealing with intense…
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